What’s on this page?
Spending & Gap Tracker
This is the new home for our money tracking tool. We have combined the old spending tracker and the gap calculator into one Google Sheets tool, so you can see what is coming in, what is going out, and how big your gap is. One tool. One scoreboard. Much less spreadsheet faff.
Spending and Gap Tracker
Make your own copy of the main Google Sheet. This tracks your spending and calculates your gap in one place.
Current version
2026-07-14
Data Converter
Got a bank or credit card export that needs tidying before you add it to the calculator? Use this to help convert your data.
Current version
2026-07-08
Data Migrator
Already used the pre-2026 version of the tools and want to move your data across? This tool helps you migrate your existing individual spending and gap data into the combined Spending and Gap Tracker.
Current version
2026-06-02
Important: when you make a copy of the Spending and Gap Tracker, Google will also copy the linked Google Form into your Google Drive. That means you can use the form to capture spending on the go, then connect it to your own tracker.
Prefer the old Excel version? No problem. We have kept it lower down this page for anyone who still wants it. Jump to the old Excel spending tracker.
The spending tracker is now the Spending and Gap Tracker
We have upgraded the tool.
The old spending tracker helped you see where your money was going. The gap calculator helped you see the difference between what you earn and what you spend.
Those two things belong together.
So now the main tool is the Spending and Gap Tracker. It helps you track your spending and calculate your gap in one place.
We have also moved the main version to Google Sheets so it is easier to use across different devices, operating systems, and countries. You do not need to have Excel installed. You just need a Google account so you can make your own copy.
Which tool should I use?
- If you are starting fresh: use the Spending and Gap Tracker. Click the button above to open it and then click create a copy.
- If you have bank or credit card data to import: use the Data Converter.
- If you used an older version of the tracker: use the Data Migrator.
- If you only want to calculate your gap: use the standalone Gap Tracker on our How Big Is Your Gap page.
The aim is not to create a perfect spreadsheet. The aim is to finally see your real money picture clearly enough to do something useful with it.
Feedback & Feature Requests
No matter how long we spend working on the spreadsheets bugs, errors and annoying things creep in. We would love to know if you spotted one so we can fix it. Use this form to tell us if something isn’t working, if there is a feature you want us to include or other comments…
Prefer the old Excel spending tracker?
We are keeping the old Excel spending tracker here for anyone who wants it.
If you love Excel, already use the old tracker, or prefer to keep everything on your own computer, you can still use it.
Just know that our recommended version is now the Google Sheets Spending and Gap Calculator above because it combines spending and gap tracking in one place and is easier for more people to access.
Warning: The Google Sheets version can not be downloaded and converted to an excel spreadsheet. None of the formulas work when converting the file. Annoying we know.
Old Spending Tracker Template
This is Version 2.2 of the Excel Spending Tracker spreadsheet. Feel free to download the excel version here.
If you don’t have Excel on your computer you can use Microsoft’s free online version.
Below are two video guides for the excel tracker we created. Leaving them here encase you are using the Excel version.
Overview guide
Import your data
Only want to calculate your gap?
If you already track your spending in an app, bank tool, or your own spreadsheet, you might not need the full Spending and Gap Calculator.
That is completely fine.
Your gap is simply the difference between what you earn and what you spend. If you already know those two numbers, you can use our standalone Gap Tracker instead.
Get the standalone Gap Tracker from the How Big Is Your Gap page.
Hi Guys, Thanks for providing these really great resources! Is it straight forward to convert the spreadsheet to a google sheet or is there anything i need to be aware of? Ive just tried it and some of the formatting does not seem to have copied over. Thanks
Hey Rupen, converting it makes some of the formatting go funky. There is a google sheet above now that avoids that! YAY
Hi RBS, this is a great tool. I had some issues with the dates but I worked it out. Thanks a lot!
Hey Jennifer, thanks for commenting. This is awesome. What was the challenge with dates? What can we learn to improve it? Alan
Hi Alan, I have the same issue. I’m not getting all transactions pulled through. They have a date format for February, but some appear in an unassigned (blank) not to a year, and not to a mouth. This means when I refresh the February tab my spending looks low, then I locate the ‘blank’ field and this show Feb’s missing spending. I know we messaged on Messenger the other day so I can sent pictures of the exact thing if that helps? thanks again for everything
Phil, that is super annoying. We will have a look into it for you and get back to you. I wonder why that is! I am going to ask Katie. Alan
Phil, Katie says:
Often it’s because they accidentally deleted the formulae in the hidden columns in the transaction tab
Katie Donegan: So the solution is to Unhide those columns, copy the formulae down and then rehide the columns
Can you unhide the colums and see if all the formula are there?? Do you know how to do that?
Hey RFS, I’m trying to set up the Jotform page. I must be just completely missing something as I can’t seem to get past the first page. I’ve copied and pasted your link into the template page and now have your template up, but I’m unsure what to do next. Nothing I click on seems to let me progress. I feel a bit stupid for asking, as there’s probably a really basic explanation! Cheers, Ben
Hey RFS, I figured it out! Guess I’m not such a luddite after all. I just had to use my eyes and try a bit of experimentation (read: clicking everything!).
While I was figuring things out, I noticed a wee typo in your description:
“Then click on the green “DownlWhy am I getting error values in my date field?
– Check your date format is matching the locale (location) set by your computer. Select a cell with a date in it – click format cells -> more number formats. The below example is for a UK date format, with locale as English (United Kingdom). Date format in this case should always be entered as DD/MM/YYYoad All” button to get the data in “CSV” or “Excel” format for loading into the Spending Tracker Spreadsheet.”
Cheers, Ben
I saw that typo – it’s still there! Perhaps RFS could add a voting button to see comments and question to pick up on…
Hey Peter, thanks for the comment. That would be a cool feature to get going . I have no idea how to do that at the moment but I love the idea…. Alan
I also had issues with the dates and formulas. If I insert a row, and populate, sometimes the information in the tracker for example, don’t get picked up on the dashboard and I’m not sure why. It has been different reason for different line. One was because I has used the drop down choice of existing transactions, if I type in ‘coffee’ it will pick it up on the dashboard, but if I used the existing ‘coffee’ to autofill, it doesn’t pick up.
Dates – sometimes in the dashboard there will be a button labelled ‘blank’ instead of a month. I have to delete each line, one by one to figure out which one is causing the issue.
I can’t copy the formulas over as I can see them, otherwise I might be able to work out what I’m doing wrong and fix it. It’s a great tracker, just a bit fiddly. I’m not 100% sure it’s picked up all of my spending. I went back and added two more categories and then went through my list reclassifying some entries. It’s didn’t like that vey much… For some I had to delete the full line and enter is as a fresh entry so it wasn’t confused by the change in category from entertainment to working lunch.
I also had issues with the dates and formulas. If I insert a row, and populate with the required information, sometimes the dashboard doesn’t pick it up and I’m not sure why. I’ve had different issues for different lines. For one line, it was because I had used the drop down choice of existing entries, if I type in ‘coffee’ without using autofill, it will pick it up on the dashboard, but if I used autofill, it doesn’t pick up it feels like it’s also picking up the formula from that cell I am copying from.
Dates – sometimes in the dashboard there will be a button labelled ‘blank’ instead of a month. I have to delete each line, one by one to figure out which cell is causing the issue.
I can’t copy the formulas over as I can’t see them, otherwise I might be able to work out what I’m doing wrong and fix it. It’s a great tracker, just a bit fiddly. I’m not 100% sure it’s picked up all of my spending. I went back and added two more categories and then went back through my list reclassifying some entries. It’s didn’t like that vey much… For some I had to delete the full line and enter is as a fresh entry so it wasn’t confused by the change in category from entertainment to working lunch.
Edited to make my original post make a little more sense (sorry)
Okay so I’ve done everything a little back to front from opening my S&S ISA to opening my SIPP and then doing my spending tracker but I’ve done it. I won’t like I’m mortified at the figures but at least I now have an idea of where my money is going and where I need to cut back. Thank you both so much for taking the time to set all these up I’m eternally grateful.
Samantha this is awesome. It is so important to look at it all even if we don’t love the numbers as it gives us the power to change them. AWESOME work on this. I am so impressed. Sending you happiness and let us know how you get on!
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I cannot for the life of me get the dates to work in the right format!!
I’m copying from my bank CSV (in England) so the date in column B is for example 30/05/2025 for the end of May and then in the calculated value in column H also shows 30/05/2025. Where as is if the date is 01/05/2025 for the start of May, column H is showing 5th Jan.
Clearly there’s so mis-match between UK/USA way of writing dates but I’m struggling to fix it without manually re-typing all the dates into column B. Any ideas? (Mac user, using online Microsoft excel, in the UK)
(also managed to post my question on the main page not the resources page so maybe I’m just tech illiterate!)
hi, I’m getting used to using excel on a Mac too. I haven’t had this problem when downloading bank csv’s but you could try highlighting the column, right-click, and then select Format Cells…, and make sure English (United Kingdom) is selected for language and pick date from the category. If that doesn’t help, maybe try chatGPT?
What category would I put paying off credit card debt!!!!
great question. It is paying for previous purchases so I would probably create another category for that and call it debt repayments. Then once that is done you can get rid of the category going forwards!
Hi there, if anyone can get a googlesheet version working, could they pass it on!? mine’s not working at all.
Jax we are working on it. Will update when it is ready!
Same here!
Don’t have Excel, just use libre office used to be known as open office it is free.
Dominic that is great. You can also get the free version of Excel that works in the browser. Can you turn the spreadsheet easy enough into a libre version? Alan
Hi like you we are both travelling the world and would love to use budget tracker that you use in multiple currency’s is there a download for that
Hey Andy, we don’t have one of those yet. Because our credit cards that we spend it on put it all back to GBP we collect the data in GBP at the exchange rate of the time and don’t use the local currencies! With 52 countries visited it would be a mess! lol. Alan
Having issues with the ‘Category’ section in the Transactions tab – section is blank when I try to catergorise. I’ve refreshed the page as advised but still nothing. Im using excel. Help!
Hi,
Is the spreadsheet set up to automatically round figures up/down to the nearest pound? I’ve started by entering just a handful of figures, but I’ve noticed that it’s not accurate to the pence. Why is this?
When I try and open the xlsx from my files in the free browser version of Excel (after downloading it from the link above), I just get ‘We ran into a problem uploading your file’ error. Can anyone help?
I’d much prefer a Google Sheets version! Is there an ETA for this Alan? Thanks
Thanks, Alan & Katie, for creating these resources and your detailed explanations/instructions! After last year’s course, I signed up with Pocketsmith, and I used that for a couple of months, but it’s too detailed and complicated. This year I decided to go for the ‘KISS’ method. I’ve used your spreadsheets (Net Worth Tracker & Spending Tracker) and I just opened an account with Jotform. So far, it seems to be working well. I entered my transactions for May and June manually and from today I will be using Jotform. I also cancelled my subscription with Pocketsmith today, so that’s a win for me :-) Thanks again, you’re never too old to learn a new trick!
Helga that is awesome. Yes PocketSmith seems to have a HUGE amount of power which can also lead to complexity! Good for you using the free trackers and jot form. That is what we use too! I LOVE IT. Thank you for sharing your progress! Alan
Hello Katie and Alan and Rebel Ninjas,
Thank you very much! Thanks to RFS and your templates I have figured out exactly how spendy we are and found an account that wasn’t invested.
I downloaded the Google spreadsheet but I see that it is missing any steps beyond step 5 unlike the Excel spreadsheet in your video. Did I miss something? I presume this relates to your comments above about Google sheets limitations and to use Excel?
I cannot figure out how to put a 2nd month’s worth of expenses in the Google sheets spending tracker. How to do that? Thanks!
Hi Katie and Alan and Rebel Ninjas,
Thanks for everything you have taught me over the past few months – it’s been awesome! I am having the same issues as Gwen above. I don’t have Excel (I’m a Mac user and long time Google platform user). I did try downloading the Excel free version but it does not translate to Apple very well (eg missing fontsand sizing on screen is not good). So I have been using the Google sheets version to track the last month’s spending. But I have realised that the dashboard and spending chart tabs are missing in the google version! I am now into my 2nd month of spend tracking but can’t work out how to analise the data by breaking it down into categories or by time.
Katie – can you help me???
Thanks so much xxx
If you go into the “Step 1, Categories” tab, you can pop the month you’re interested in D6, and it will then give the month total in the cell below (D7), and then there’s a breakdown per category against the category below that in D9 to D17 (or more if you’ve put more categories in).
You could always copy those values to a separate tab, or even copy the formula too, to see how they track over time, sadly we couldn’t (at the time) work out how to automate doing that. to provide the same sorts of views you get in the Excel version.
Fab spreadsheet. Thank you. For those who may not be au fait with spreadsheets, maybe put in the guidance that if they filter on the name of common expenses that appear multiple times in a period – you can then fill in the category once by dragging down from the first one completed. i.e. filter on Asda, it may appear on multiple rows (depending on how often you visit and on your debit and credit card) – select the category for the first entry (e.g. Supermarket) and then drag it down to the rows which do not have the category entered for Asda
Thanks Emma, great tip. LOVE IT.
Hi, I love the first video and am now getting started. I love the categories but can’t see how to have the heading with the little arrow and drop-down menu on my own spreadsheet. How do I do this? Thank you
Hey Lucy, good work getting started! YAY. This should help:
Steps to Create a Drop-Down Heading/List:
Select Cells: Highlight the cells where you want the dropdowns to appear.
Data Validation: Navigate to the Data tab on the ribbon and click Data Validation.
Configure List: In the settings tab, select List from the “Allow” dropdown.
Source Data: In the “Source” box, type your options separated by commas (e.g.Option 1, Option 2) or select a range of cells containing your list items.
Finalize: Click OK
My husband and I have just started the course (and are loving it – thank you) – if we are tracking seperately as we have seperate accounts but would like to combine both for overall household results – any suggestions for a simple way to do this? Aside from open a joint bank account?
Hey Caroline, we have all separate cards and spending but then we bring it together to see household spending too. We use an APP to pull together all the data, (Emma – which does the job but we aren’t fans of”) and then we pull that data into a spreadsheet to look at. You could download the spending data from each of your accounts and just combine it? We do the same.
hi Donegans,
Was just looking at my Barclaycard / CREDIT card statement – But i could not get the CSV download. Are you aware how can i possibly get it if at all?
Ruchi, Barclays say you can do it. I have Barclays too and I have done it before. https://www.barclaycard.co.uk/business/help/online-services/how-do-i-download-the-csv-file do you have a laptop or desktop? or are you using a phone. In my experience doing it on a laptop or something like that gives you more options… Should be possible. Let me know what you see.. Alan
Hey Ruchi,
I also has the same problem trying to get statements for an Amazon Barclaycard which I’ve had for the last year.
As per https://www.barclaycard.co.uk/personal/customer/register-online-account – It’s no longer possible to register for online servicing – find how to use the Barclaycard app to check your transactions and statements, pay your bill and more.
This is what I did to import Barclaycard data into Excel:
1. On the Barclaycard app i downloaded each months statements (PDF) on the phone. There is no CSV option.
2. I then connected my phone to my PC and moved the files onto the PC.
3. Open Microsoft Excel on the PC (I have the full client) and click on the Menu – Data – > Get Data -> from File -> From PDF
4. Select the month’s statement PDF and Excel will attempt to bring in all the data into tables.
5. I usually found Table 005 and Table 006 to have the transactions I needed. Import these and you can then copy paste the column data into the template.
Thsi worked fine for me.
Good luck!
Thanks Stan, Love that you found this out! Alan
Finally got round to creating my spreadsheet since doing the RFS 6 months ago. Your spreadsheet and instructions are amazing! I have uploaded the data from my bank for the last 6 months of 2025 and now have a clear idea of my spending – I love a graph and in time hope I love spreadsheets too – (still not got round to finishing the Excel course). It is terrifying and relieving. Thank you so much.
Nancy this is AMAZING. Congratulations for taking control and getting it into a spreadsheet to look at! nice work. Clarity gives you so much more power. Sending happiness.. Alan
Hi, regarding savings (transfers), how can I track them? I want to be able to – on a separate tab – to track them according to short to be spent within a year for planned expenses), medium (to be spent within 2-5 years on planned bigger expenses), long-term (over 5 years). what do you recommend please?
This is a good question. The new spending tracker has a way to track income and expenditure and you could create categories for these in the new tracker and then a separate tab to total up the pots you have. Or have the pots on the net-worth tracker as totals until you spend them? If you can come along Thursday and this will be coming up! Sending you happiness. Alan
Thank you guys so much for the spending tracker. It is so good/user friendly for this basic excel user when used with the data converter. I messed up a couple of data imports at first – but the guide is great for getting back on track. Also, nice to know what the ‘gap’ actually is and to visualize it via the tracker. I’m a good ‘instinctual’ saver-over-spender, but this takes me to a new level in fully grasping the ‘front end’ numbers.
Looking forward to next week and beyond!
Paul, THANK YOU for commenting and replying. YAY! yeah it takes a little bit of getting used to but then the data is so powerful . We love looking at the charts every single month! YOU ROCK. Alan
Hello Donegans and the behind the scenes Ninjas,
Firstly, a compounding thank you for your wisdom, style and clarity. I arrived to your course by chance and have absorbed much (+ changed much) as a result to thank you for all your hard work – the little people are grateful!
Secondly, the boring stuff. Am I being a total idiot (insert answer here) but when I click on your new improved spending tracker (on Google sheets) it takes me to the ‘make a copy’ page. I dutifully click on that it tells me…’Sorry, unable to open the file at this time.
Please check the address and try again’. Am I doing something obviously wrong. I have tried on my laptop and phone and tablet and got the same result. Boo hiss to my possible ineptitude?
Aside from that – all wonderful and keep up the sterling work!
Hey Sarah,
Firstly… what a lovely message ❤️ THANK YOU. On the tracker issue, you’re definitely not being an idiot – that error usually means something technical on Google’s side rather than anything you’ve done.
A couple of things to try:
Make sure you’re logged into a Google account (Gmail)
– the “Make a copy” button needs that to work
Try opening the link in an incognito/private window
– this bypasses any browser weirdness
Try again in a little while
– we’ve been updating the tracker and sometimes Google has a wobble when lots of people access it at once
If none of that works, reply here and we’ll get you sorted properly – we’ve got you.
And thank you again for being part of the course – we’re really glad you’re here.
Alan
This seems so labour intensive! Is Jott really asking me to fill in a whole form per expense or group of them?! I’ll do it in excel – fast
Hey Cassandra, the key is to use the tool that works best for you. Jot form creates a form you can fill in on the go that adds things directly to a spreadsheet so you can fill things in on the go… Alan
Thank you for the amazing course and resources. I’m just starting out with the new Spending Tracker and Gap Calculator and have in put my transactions but I’m confused about two things:
1. Director’s Loans – i have started a new business (side hustle) and have paid money into the business bank account as a Director’s Loan. Should i include this as spending (because i may not get the money back for several years or ever) or a transfer (as technically the business account belongs to me)? If i put it as transfer then i get an artificially positive GAP because it ignores the money going out.
2. Pension – my husband has a monthly payment to Prudential which is some kind of pension pot. Should i include this as a transfer and then also log it in investments? I understand that pensions are not spending but the money is still leaving our account so, again, i get an artificially positive GAP.
Thank you and sorry for being thick!
Hey Tori,
Firstly… you are absolutely not being thick — these are great questions and exactly the kind of thinking we want. We have spent a LONG time thinking through these exact questions as Katie and I both had a business!
1) Director’s loan
This one comes down to how you emotionally and realistically view the money.
If you genuinely expect to get it back → you could treat it as a transfer
But if, in your gut, it’s “money I’m putting into the business and may never see again” → that’s spending
In that case, I’d:
Create a category like “Business investment” or “Starting my business” or “business name”
Treat it as spending
Because from your personal finances point of view, that money has left your life to fund something you believe in. Then if it comes back then you can just put a positive in that category later and it is all offset! YAY!!!
2) Pension payments
This is the counter-intuitive one.
Pensions are not spending… they are your Gap in action.
So:
The money leaving your account into a pension
Should increase your Gap (because you’re investing it)
Yes, it can feel like it makes your Gap look “artificially positive” — but it’s actually money you are investing and it is money you are earning so it is the gap!
Simple way to think about it
Spending = money gone and consumed
Gap = money you keep and invest (ISAs, pensions, etc.)
You’re asking exactly the right questions — this is where the tool really starts to click.
Alan
Hey, the google spreadsheet only has tabs up to ‘Steps 2-5. Transactions’ and then CSV examples? Anyone else finding that?
Hey Charlotte, did you use the button at the top of the page and take a copy? Alan
Hello Donegans and the behind the scenes Ninjas,
Total dufus here!! I have signed into google, tried incognito/private window (I even adopted a strange accent & changed my hair to complete the deception) but the spread sheet still will not open. Sorry!
Sure you have 33,000 other queries to attend to. The small p was meant to mean ‘purpose’ but in the case means ‘pain’.
Not urgent in any way as I am dutifully (and happily) filling in the ‘old’ (2025) versions.
Thank you again team.
All fixed…sorry (and thankyou)
Awesome!
Hi Rebel Ninjas,
In the ‘Gap’ tab, Pre-tax Investments (employer and employee pension contributions) are shown at the top with Income and Spending, and are included in the formula with these to work out the gap. i.e. Gap=(Income + Pre-tax Investments)-Spending
This doesn’t seem right, as that’s money that you don’t see until you draw on your pension. It’s certainly not income that increases what you have as a useable gap.
I think the row for Pre-tax Investments should be lower down the page within the Freedom Fund Purchase section. What do you think?
Or if it is in the right place, please could you explain how I need to enter my pension contributions so that it doesn’t make it look like I have a bigger positive gap than I really do?
Thank you!
Hi team, these resources are amazing. We’re having an issue with the spending tracker and the spending dashboard tab. We have 11 spending categories and these have come through to column A. However, only 9 of these categories are being represented in the charts. It seems the 2 missing categories are not appearing in column F and H which the charts are based on. Is there a way to edit is so all 11 categories translate to column F and H and are therefore shown in the charts. Thanks so much. With much appreciation from El and Tris
Hey Tristan, yes we realised that it is set to only pull through 10 categories in the array. Sorry about that. if you are good at spreadsheets you could use Gemini to build a new formula or we have a new version being released this week that will fix this issue! Sorry for the wait. Alan
Hi, I can’t find the google form that’s linked to the spreadsheet anywhere! I can’t see that it’s been downloaded at the same time as the spreadsheet in my files… please help!
Hey Chloe and Lily, one way to find it is to go to the Form Data Tab and the in the menu click, Tools > Manage Form > Go To Live Form. That will take you to the form that populates that page. let me know if it works for you…. Alan
Hi, I’m loving the course so far! On the spending tracker, I have put both employees and employers workplace pension contributions separated out on the investment tab but it looks like it adds both to my income as pre tax investing on the gap tab, which then makes my gap look higher. Is that correct or should it just be my contribution? Thanks!
Hey Lindsey it is part of your gap and you are earning that money and investing it! Just normally we don’t see it as it is contributed and never even shows up for us! so yes it should make your gap look bigger! nice work! Alan
Hello,firstly a HUGE thank you Katie and Alan for RFS and your excellent resources. I have been needing a tool like your wonderful spending and gap tracker for over 30 years to illuminate mine and my husband’s and family finances, and tackle the tension inherent in managing money. I’m a little stuck with populating my different months of downloaded CSV bank statement transactions into the gap converter and into the tracker. After a LOT of goes and luck, I managed to upload (or did I import or was it a cut and paste??!!) first batch of 6 months of bank data. That pulled through to the tracker . Yay! But when I downloaded the second batch of CSV bank transactions into a new google sheet I don’t know how to add this to the converter so it merges with the first lot of bank transactions ? You said you can add like years of bank transactions but how exactly? Is it via cut and paste, upload, import??? I’ve rewatched the week 1 session many times but not sure you cover troubleshooting on this specific bit, which makes me think it should be simple and I must be doing something wrong? Thanks for rescuing me! I so want to crack this!
Hello Katie and Alan and everyone at RFS for your amazing generosity in creating and sharing these resources – it’s the first time I’ve felt enthusiastic about managing my own money!
I love the Spending Tracker but have a recurring issue even though I’ve been through the process three times – which is none of the data pulls through to the Gap tabs or to the Monthly Spending tab and Monthly Spending Graph tab. It just shows ‘0’ in all the cells. But my data HAS pulled through to the ANNUAL spending tabs, and the spending dashboard. All the dates are correct, I’ve uploaded the bank csv files correctly, the positives and negatives are all correct. Any idea what’s going wrong? Thanks very much!
Rebecca, that is SUPER annoying. ok we are releasing a new version which is going to fix a lot of the bugs tomorrow night on the course. it will be ready for you tomorrow. Can you down load the new version tomorrow, just copy and paste in all your transactions and then it should work. Will you let me know how you get on? Alan
A huge thank you Alan and everyone on the team – I’ve downloaded the new version and now all the fields are working!! Thanks so much!
YAY! that is awesome Rebecca! Ninja Martin deserves all the praise! Alan
I’m will Michelle on this. I have a first bank data ‘import’ successfully showing in the Transactions list (with the most recent date at the top).
I now have this month’s data to paste in, but where do I paste it? If I paste at the bottom the date order is wrong. I can’t add new row at the top as I get a warning and just selecting the top row and pasting as values brings in the new data, but overwrites the existing?
Please help. (It’s going to be really obvious I bet?!)
hey Paul, you just add it to the end of the transactions tab. Doesn’t matter that it is in the “wrong date” order as the spreadsheet will work it all out and then all the other tabs will allow you to analyse it all… Past it in at the bottom and then go to the other tabs to view it… Let me know how you get on please. Alan
Hi Alan and Paul Cartwright, im going to have another crack at csv file converter to tracker uploading… but as it’s been a couple of months since I last tried and failed 😣 … wanted to check… should I download the tracker again and start over from scratch?
Hi quick question , do i add my spending from credit card when i spend it so i can categorise it , but then what do i put in the spending tracker when i pay my card each month? As if i add it as a spend again it will double account won’t it ? Don’t want to miss out on any gap i may have !
Hey Linda, yes this is the classic double spend trap. What we do is add it when we get our credit card statement at the end of the month and pull everything in at once. We don’t add it in as we go. But you can do it either way, add it as you go and not at the end, or all at once at the end. Then you just mark the payment of the bill as a transfer and the spreadsheet ignores it so no double counting. Does that help? Alan
Defined Benefit pensions.
Are these added to Spending Tracker?
Can the instructions be updated so give more information about what types of pension to enter.
Hey Nick, these would go on the net-worth tracker. Spending and gap tracker is for cashflow, money in and money out and then pensions, sipps, ISAs and stuff goes on the net-worth tracker which gives a snap shot of your finances each month. https://rebeldonegans.com/finance/take-control/net-worth-tracker/ Funny enough we are going through all of this on tonight RFS session 8PM UK time if you want to join us… Alan
Hello Alan. Thank you for getting back to me. This is what I did as a last resort and noticed that things seemed to work ok :)
Is it not do-able to have the columns re-order by date as that would make this list work as you’d expect it?
Thank you either way :)
will have a chat to Katie about it and get back to you. We have a new version coming out this week! Alan
hey Paul. Katie here! If you want to have the transactions in date order, here’s the steps to do it.
1. On the cell that says “Date” (cell A4 in the spreadsheet), click the thing that looks like an upside down pyramid
2. Choose “Sort A to Z” if you want the oldest date first or choose “Sort Z to A” if you want the latest date first
Note that it doesn’t automatically re-order when you add new transactions, you’ll just need to re-sort it each time. Let me know if this helps!! Katie :) xx
Hello Katie/Alan – That works nicely, thank you. I did try this but didn’t want to go past the warning!! :)
YAY! so glad it worked! Awesome. Thanks Paul!
hi on my spending tracker i appear to have done something so now i don’t see the date in the end of month column . I have gone back to set up and checked i have a date in there and that is fine . So can you please show me the formula to input into the column .
Thanks
Hey Linda, is this on the new version we released yesterday? if so we removed it as it was causing a LOT of problems with people overwriting it…Alan
Hello Katie/Alan, first off I want to say thank you for all the hard work in providing this for all of us to use.
I do have a small bit of feedback on the latest version (the July update to the Spending and Gap Tracker), as I feel it offers less value than the June version:
1. The new line on the Gap sheet, ‘Income-Spending-Investing’, shows a lot of negative entries. I do fully understand why that is in our case (cash influx due to gifts etc, or deciding to move our NS&I into our ISA). However, it looks like the Average Gap is now based off of that line, rather than the original. This means that our Average Gap is now very negative, rather than positive; which is not an accurate reflection of our monthly money flows.
2. The Gap chart now incorporates the line from point 1 (Gap base on Income-Spending-Investing) as the black dotted line, but according to the data and text in row 2 it should show the average gap still. This means that rather than the horizontal line that it used to be, it now fluctuates up and down, which can become confusing and removes the informational value for us.
Apart from this I would say keep up the good work! :)
Thanks Marc, we LOVE feedback. Will explore this and have a think about it all and come back to you. LOVE that you pointed this out as without people using it and testing it we can’t improve it all. Thank you
Thanks for the reply Alan. Again really appreciate all the hard work you put in.
For now we will keep using the June version as it is really great and will keep our eyes peeled for future updates :)
Love it March! absolutely. Use the version best for you and we will look into it!
I must be doing something wrong… Initially used the old excel spreadsheet when I first came across RFS in March, and have use the new Google sheets version for my most recent month. Both tally up, but if the numbers are to be believe, my total gap over the last 4 months is +£2k. And I for sure don’t have an extra £2k sitting in my current account! Am very puzzled 😖
Hi, I’ve just downloaded the new spending and gap tracker spreadsheet, but I can’t see the tab where you add your income. Only the spending and investment tabs? Can someone please point it out to me? I can’t see for looking.
Hey Emma, it goes in the transactions tab. if you pull in your bank data you would just mark the incoming wages as income and it will auto do it for you! YAY. Everything goes in transactions! Alan
Hi Alan and Paul Cartwright, im going to have another crack at csv file converter to tracker uploading… but as it’s been a couple of months since I last tried and failed 😣 … wanted to check… should I download the tracker again and start over from scratch?
Hey Michelle, if it has been a couple of month then there is a newer and better version so yes. have a go with a new version! Alan
Hello, Thank you for all the amazing resources and the brilliant course! I’ve been using your Excel spending tracker since May, and all was working fine until recently, when all the charts in the Excel sheet have frozen as super tiny, and I’ve spent hours using AI advice trying to fix them with no luck. The same issue applies whenever I download a new Excel sheet to populate. I don’t like using Google Drive files, so I’m keen to stick with Excel. Do you have any ideas on what I can do to fix it? Thanks so much for any advice!
Hi Alan, I am tracking my third month on the spending tracker, and have just run out of formatted cells to enter my transactions into. Am i meant to be replacing the transactions rather than continually adding to them each month? or should i be pasting the formulae further down the tab…? (not sure i know how to do that!) … or something else. A bit behind but loving the course and holding my horses, thank you!
Hi Anna, when I ran out of rows for transactions there was a prompt at the bottom of the page that created another 1000 rows when clicked.